Valve Reveals Steam Machine Prototype Specs

Valve has today revealed the specs behind its Steam Machine prototype, and if you were expecting something on the level of the next-gen consoles (like I was), you might just be pleased to learn that your assumptions were incorrect.

As we discussed last week, Valve will be sending out 300 of these Steam Machine prototypes to lucky beta entrants, and in the spirit of the PC, not all of the configurations are alike. Behold:

Steam Machine Prototype

NVIDIA GeForce TITAN, GTX 780, GTX 760, or GTX 660

Intel Core i7-4770, i5-4570, or i3 (Model not specified)

16GB of DDR3-1600 (and supposed 3GB of GDDR5)

1TB Hard Drive + 8GB SSHD for caching

Internal 450W Power Supply

Dimensions: 12 x 12.4 x 2.9"

Even with the lowest configuration, the capabilities compared to the next-gen consoles is great, as even a GTX 660 will be able to handle most of today's games with good graphics settings @ 1080p. On the high-end - well, whoever receives those are lucky buggers, that's for sure.

Valve doesn't expect that these prototypes will serve the needs of everyone, and it's clear about the fact that vendors are sure to make a variety of their own configurations. This is the PC, after all, nothing is locked-down on the hardware front. Further, Valve mentions that these prototypes offer a fully upgradeable design: The CPU, GPU, RAM, and even the motherboard can be swapped - essentially everything except the PSU since it's built-in.

For those who want to go the DIY route, Valve will be making a CAD file available of the enclosure. The company really does seem to be going above and beyond here.

Unfortunately, no pictures have been revealed at this point, and they really can't get here sooner. Given the fact that a Steam Machine is meant to sit next to a TV, it's hard to imagine just how attractive one would be packing a GPU like a TITAN. So, I for one am extremely interested to see this final design. What about you?